Friday, August 31, 2012

The entry way was one of the first rooms I painted and decorated in our new house. I still love most of it but naturally my design mind is ready for a change. I'm waiting for the right console to come along to determine what will happen in here. What am I looking for you ask? Well I don't know. It's one of those I'll know it when I see it things. Ever get that?

So this is what it looked like when we moved in, post ceiling scrape. The lady who lived here before REALLY loved Texas things. There was star and cowboy shit everywhere! And again with the peach walls! So we scraped off the cowboy hat border, repainted and changed the light fixture first thing.

Soooo much better. We did a little two tone thing on the ceiling to show off the architecture. Pro-tip: When you have nice ceilings (or any feature really) like this use two different paint colors to show them off. It really highlights the details.

The paint color is Pillow Mint by valspar. It's a nice crisp mint color. The console is from Target and I've had it since college. I painted it glossy black with white drawer fronts and knobs from Antrhopologie. It's a nice piece but I think I'm ready for something more substantial and unique. I think I want to go dark with the walls.

Eventually I was gifted this wonderful light by my Mother in Law. I love it so much. It's from Ballard's.

I gradually added on little details here and there. A basket for mail.

I spent forever collecting the vintage beveled edge mirrors. They can be quite pricey but I didn't want to pay over $40 for any of them. Most are from Canton, I think one or two my mom found in random antique stores. The two littlest ones are from Target though. It's hard to find tiny antique ones. I wouldn't mind adding more if I ever come across a mirror I loved. This is one feature I will keep when I re-do the space.

The hat boxes are vintage and the pink one is Schiaparelli of course. The stool was a canton purchase that I recovered and painted.

The lamp was a sample I scored from days working at JcPenney corporate. The mask is from our honeymoon in Venice. The little bottles with stones on top are from Wisteria. The cup holds my husband's keys and I got it at goodwill.

And as you can see there is a giant 5 foot star in the floor. I hate it so much. Can't wait for wood floors!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Not much I can really say about this room. After we finish our hall bath remodel this will be the next big project. And when I say big, I mean big. As in scale and price tag. It's going to be a long road...

I took this when we first moved in. All we did really was clean and paint the walls.

Since then we've gotten a new fridge and a tiny island cart. The layout of this kitchen kinda renders the only usable counter space in the corner, which is difficult. Also the dishwasher to left bumps into the front of the oven range when you open it. I plan to move it to the other side of the sink when we reno. Having the dishwasher there also makes that corner cabinet a black hole. It could be a nice corner with a swivel rack or something. That would give use so much more usable space!

A few months ago I added this great vintage turkish rug I found on craigslist for $100. It was more than I'd usually spend on a rug this size but duh its vintage and the colors are great! Money well spent methinks.

Up until about 4 or 5 months ago our breakfast nook was pretty much empty. I had other areas to focus on so this fell by the wayside just like putting on mascara did after I decided I didn't care anymore...back to the topic at hand though.

Actually for a really long time I had my office in here. Silly right? We had a good friend renting out our third bedroom (which is now my office) for almost two years so I moved my desk in here since the space wasn't being used anyways. I kinda liked it really, the room gets great light.

I thought a round table would be perfect in here so naturally the ever affordable Ikea Docksta caught my eye with its mid century stylings. I ended up snagging it for $100 off craigslist, which saves $80 as opposed to buying it new.

Then I stumbled on these chairs at one of my favorite antique dumps in Dallas, Richard Hecht on Oak Lawn. It doesn't look like much at first, no shelving, kinda smelly, stuff piled here and there. But I've found some really great things there. When I can catch it open that it. The guy keeps no hours, at least that I know of. I usually just drive by and stop if he happens to be open, which he is about 1 out of 10 times I try to go there.

Anyways they are real Danish chairs in great condition and I got all four for $40! No you shut up, yes that's $10 a chair! Absurd!

I recovered the cushions myself with a bit of fabric and a staple gun. The fabric is from one of the best fabric stores in Dallas, Fabric Factory. I didn't need much so I splurged a bit on $50/yard fabric. I think I spent about $85 total for fabric. So with the cost of the chairs that's custom chairs for not a lot of moola!

Something you didn't see in the Houzz tour was the light we have in here which I absolutely love. I need to put it on a chain so it will hang lower but thats a project for another day. I got it at White Elephant. I had seen it for like $175 late last year. I took a picture and just could not stop thinking about it. For MONTHS I thought about this light but I couldn't afford $175! I finally decided that two months had gone by and I still wanted it so I knew it wasn't impulse. I would go back and if it was still there I would put it on lay away, if it wasn't then it just wasn't meant to be. Well I went right before Christmas and not only was it there but it was on sale! I paid $120 for it right then and there.

Our cigar store Indian guards this corner of the house. My husbands family owned a furniture store in Witchita for decades. I wish we had more pieces from their store. When they sold it he was able to get this Indian and I love it. It used to freak me out in the dark but now I've grown fond of him. His name is "Chief Mucho Mango", yes that would be the name of a certain beverage made by the Arizona Iced Tea Company.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The dining room was one of the biggest attractions for me when we looked at this house. The wall of windows opening up into the living room was so wonderful. As someone who had been an apartment dweller for 7 years I wanted light so badly.

Some befores...

This is when we first bought the place, post popcorn scrape. The light fixture was gaudy brass-tastic. The walls were a deep red and the wainscoting (along with all the trim in the house) was a beige-y off white color.

This is after the initial coat of paint, nice white wainscoting, and new light fixture. The table and chairs were another borrow from my parents. It stayed exactly like this for probably a year.

Then I saw this beautiful black lacquer table on clearance at Pier 1. And I knew it was the one. The curve of the legs, the shiny black goodness, the size, it was all perfect. So I brought it home with me for only $300.

The wall color was one of the first things I painted an actual color in our house. The color is Purple Basil by Martha Stewart for Home Depot. I probably went through about 5 different purples before I chose this one. I knew we could go dark in this room because of all the windows and the fact that the wainscoting covers half the walls. So I decided to go bold and I totally love it.

Then after months of searching on craigslist I finally found the perfect chairs. Only $100 for all six. Huge score!

I painted them white, which took forever because the Texas summer started right when I got them. It took me six months to paint all six. It was just too damn hot to work during the summer, so they just sat there.

I managed to find a thin black and white stripe fabric from High Fashion Home for only $10 a yard, so I spent $80 total. Then we saved up for upholstery which cost about $350. If you're keeping track including spray paint we spent about $600 total on the chairs. $100 each for custom chairs? Not bad if I do say so myself.

Then came one of my ultimate scores. The bar cart. I snagged it at, you guessed it, Canton. For only $55!

It needed some TLC but I thought that was all the better. I polished it up with some brasso, tightened the screws and bought some pretty paper from paper source to cover the shelves. The shelves were some fake faux wood or something.

I made a template for the shelves out of plain paper to make sure I got it just right. Then mounted the pretty paper with spray adhesive.

And bam, a whole new piece!

I do love it so.

Meanwhile I managed to score this beautiful art deco china hutch from some friends who were having a garage sale. I don't remember what we paid for it exactly because we bought several things altogether but it was stupid cheap. I had plans to cover it with paper one day.

Again the paper in the hutch is from Paper Source mounted with spray adhesive. Its amazing how much I use that stuff. Definitely a good item for your tool kit.

The fabric was a splurge. I had been searching for the perfect thing for months and on a trip to NYC I saw this fabric at Mood and just knew it was the one. It was my birthday gift that year. We needed a lot and it was $40/yard. I think we spent over $600 for everything. Then my mom and I sewed them together ourselves. It sounds like a lot but again, when you think about how much Anthropologie charges for curtains, it really is comparable. And no one else has these curtains. They MAKE the room!

The light fixture still has that generic home depot light we originally installed under there. I just wired a giant drum shade I got from a showroom at Dallas Market over it.

The curtain rod is a cable system from Ikea that I highly recommend. It's cheap, easy to install and can extend really long. A curtain rod long enough to cover these walls would have cost easily $100.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The living room is a hard room you guys. There's so much to coordinate, so many ways it has to function, and not to mention $$$!

That's probably why this was the most recent room I've worked on.

It's in a good place but isn't quite where I want it to be yet. But I'm a slow decorator and I'm beginning to accept that.

This is the best before pic I could find from when we moved in in 2009.

And "after".

We removed the popcorn ceiling, took down the ugly big wood blinds, painted the walls and trim, removed the gloss over the brick on the fireplace and made a new mantle.

Then our house pretty much stayed that way, for like almost two years.

This is after I painted the room Nimbus Cloud by Martha Stewart. I don't have a big picture for the in between time because I was so embarrassed. That sofa looks so used up and lumpy! That coffee table I borrowed from my parents, "borrowed" for almost 3 years!

Most of the art is either made by me or vintage pieces. All the pillows are made out of vintage scarves I cut and sewed together with an invisible zipper. Seriously these things are like $1 at canton. Slap some cotton on the back and you've got a gorgeous pillow for like $5!

The coffee table was a craigslist find for $150. It was short as are most mid century pieces so Scott built a box that we then covered in gold wrapping paper. Trust, paper was the best way, we tried them aaaaall!

I know many of you are wondering about those gorgeous chairs. Why wouldn't you? They're awesome.

Here's a story;

I wanted two accent chairs. They had to be comfy but stylish. They couldn't be a normal wingback because that would just be too easy right? They also had to be cheap.

Cue searching craigslist every. single. day. for more than 6 months.

I finally found these gems for a $100 for both. Sold!

There they are in all their 80's business office glory.

They stayed this way for almost 8 months.

I had to find the right fabric. When I found that I had to save up the money. When i did that I had to save for upholstery. This shit ain't cheap and I want to be real with you. Decorating takes time. Sure I am envious of all those people that can decide what they want and then, poof, it's bought and all done up. But I don't make decisions quickly nor do I have the budget for that. But I think this way is actually better ya'll. Because you really think things through and make sure you get exactly what you want.

Now for those curtains.

They are simple Ikea panels that I dip dyed ombre.

This is an easy but messy project. I also had to dye them twice to get them dark enough.

I used to not be sure if they were right for our living room but now I really love them.

This is the nook for our TV which you didn't see on the tour. Don't you always wonder where they hide those things?

This nook used to be an 80's wet bar complete with mirrors and tacky lighting. We ripped all that out and shoved a dresser in there for our tv. I like that it's out of the way and that little nook hides all the cords necessary to make my techie husband happy.

I know many of you wondered about our floors. They are stained concrete. I hate them with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. In person they are rust colored and very splotchy. After we reno the kitchen we plan to do wood but I guess this is better than stinky carpet right?

So that's our living room! If you have more questions please let me know!